Looking at the weird and wonderful world of films

Month: January 2014

Well. Where shall I start? Hopefully, You’re Next won’t be what you’re watching next unless you like watching the same average ‘horror’ film over and over again. This film reminded me of The Strangers but on a bigger scale in terms of people and with an attempt at a twist which didn’t really go down well with me for a number of reasons which i will go over so if you don’t want the film to be ruined for you, stop reading (sorry).

Anyway, the film starts with a couple having a sex which the woman doesn’t seem to be enjoying at all, maybe she would have enjoyed it more if she knew she was going to be murdered in 5 minutes time but she didn’t know so her loss. She decides to go have a drink and put some music on whilst the man has a shower, unsurprisingly the man comes out of the shower to find the words ‘YOU’RE NEXT’ on the patio sliding glass door, with the woman on the other side of the doors on the floor dead. Then a man with a mask of an animal on, which to be fair is very creepy, kills the man and I assume it was the same person that killer the woman, I don’t completely remember seeing the woman be killed.

The film then shows one of the sons of the Davison family, Crispian (A.J. Bowen) along with his girlfriend Erin (Sharni Vinson). They are on their way to the family holiday home to meet up with the rest of the family, this holiday home is conveniently placed next to the home of the people who were murdered at the start of the movie who also haven’t been discovered yet. The rest of the family includes Aubrey Davison (Barbra Crampton) and Paul Davison (Rob Moran) who are the parents of the family, another brother Felix Davison (Nicholas Tucci) and Felix’s girlfriend Zee (Wendy Glenn), a sister Aimee Davison(Amy Seimetz) and her boyfriend Tariq (Ti West), the final brother Drake Davison (Joe Swanberg) and Drake’s wife, Kelly (Margaret Laney). A lot of characters? Don’t panic, they’re not all around for very long.

Next they’re all having a meal while an argument starts to break out and Tariq notices something outside and decides to approach the window in which results in him getting shot with a crossbow, in the face. The film gets a bit messy here and a lot starts going on, the typical screaming at the top of your voice comes into play and Drake ends up getting shot with a crossbow bolt in the back. Whilst they are all couching on the floor by the dinner table they discover that their phones are being blocked so retreat to the hallway by the front door. Erin seemingly being the only calm headed one in the house, you can already tell that she’s going to be one of the main characters, repeatedly advises everyone to stay in the house and somehow the wise idea for someone to try and make a run for it is suggested. Aimee ends up trying to make a run for it but in ridiculous fashion has her throat cut by wire that’s strung across the door by running into it. Aubrey decides to go up to her bedroom to rest and grieve to which no one decides to go with her or says stay down here and this leads to her being killed by the man with a fox mask.

The film plays out like every other ‘horror’ film, people are killed off one-by-one but there’s the one good person that fights back and tries to set up defenses against the bad guys, in this case the ‘animal masked’ men. You’ve also got a twist that there are also family members in on it which i will go into now! So, as I just stated some family members are in on the killing as they want to get inheritance from their family and also because they dislike half the family, my first issue is that just because you don’t like someone you don’t usually hire people to kill your family. The second issue is that the first two murders don’t really make any sense now as the masked men are hired, why were the people next door be killed? Unless they did it knowing that the members of the family may make their way next door, but how did they know anyone would be in the house next door? It doesn’t make sense. The third point is that the whole family pretty much didn’t get on so the idea that some of them teamed up is unrealistic, how would this idea have come up?

Although that doesn’t add up, the main character in the film which is Erin is very likable and I feel that I was routing for her to kill the masked men and survive, but I wasn’t on the edge of my seat. Overall I wouldn’t say this is an awful film but it’s far from being good, I don’t remember any of the film being scary or horrifying. Have any questions? Agree or Disagree with me? let me know and thanks for reading.

I was expecting to watch this film, enjoy the action, go home and forget about it in a few days. However this film wasn’t the typical ‘secret agent action movie’ you’d expect! The opening is both clever and relatable, it starts with Jack Ryan (Chris Pine) laying on a bench outside the London School of Economics, where he notices a gathering of people coming in and out of the building. Obviously he enters the building to see news on the 9/11 terrorist attack which has just happened.

This leads to him dropping out and joining the Marines. This part of the film seems to move quickly, no more than 10 minutes later Jack’s in a helicopter crash and suddenly he’s in a rehab unit trying/learning to walk again. Which is how Jack meets Cathy (Keira Knightley) who’s accent goes from American to British and it’s confusing as to whether she’s meant to be British or American…oh well.

The film moves so fast and the healing process tried to show Jack’s struggle but at the same time it was trying to build a relationship between Jack and Cathy, I feel it ended up doing neither. Not that it was bad or boring to watch, just the time probably could have been used better. On top of this you witness Kevin Costner’s character, Thomas Harper, watching Jack’s recovery and waiting to recruit him for the CIA, having seen his dissertation Thomas is impressed and wants him to work as a CIA analyst. I thought this was cool, secret agents are all very similar however Jack is just a clever young man that’s good with mathematics and economics.

The film jumps to Jack working for the CIA under cover in a bank. Where he ends up noticing money that’s unaccounted for and the whereabouts is unknown. The money could be very damaging to the US and could lead to another Great Depression. The money that’s gone is controlled by Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh) and this leads to the CIA investigating and Jack having to be the agent that is undercover to find out what’s happened to the money.

The story advances and becomes tense, with a few funny moments in between. Due to the film having moved so fast the complications in Jack and Cathy’s relationship are nearly forgotten until they’re used when undercover.

There are conveniences in this movie which are unrealistic which is a shame but overall the film is a good actions film, and the ending doesn’t disappoint with the tense typical ‘race against time’ part. I would recommend going to see this, it’s entertaining and refreshingly different at times. Thanks for reading my first review! 😀